Play as an aspiring gladiator seeking to win the Tournament of Champions in the Arcane Arena. The Arcane Arena is a secret temple where fighting techniques are practiced, magical spells are taught and martial arts tournaments are held. Spend the time before the big event training in your favorite combat tactics and competing in satellite tournaments to test your mettle and gain the approval of the temple's caretakers.

In Arcane Arena, players start with a small deck of simple cards. Over the course of 3 rounds of play they add new cards to their deck and compete in simulated combat on a tactics board.

The game ships with 170 game cards, 8 rules reminder cards, a board, 4 character tokens, 35 favor tokens, and 4 character tracking cards. Each play-through offers different revealed randomly cards for players to purchase leading to varied strategies from game to game.